type the human element is almost absorbed, as in
the first variety cited above, the coin of Metapontum, the bull portion
of the type is only indicated by the addition of the horns and ears to
the human head. On the analogy between these, varieties in the type of
the Achelous and those under which the metamorphoses of the marine
goddess Thetis are represented, see Gerhard, Auserl. Vasenb. ii. pp.
106-113. It is probable that, in the type of Thetis, of Proteus, and
also of the Achelous, the singular combinations and transformations are
intended to express the changeful nature of the element water.

Numerous other examples may be cited, where rivers are represented by
this combination of the bull and human form, which maybe called, for
convenience, the Androtauric type. On the coins of Sicily, of the
archaic and also of the finest period of art, rivers are most usually
represented by a youthful male figure, with small budding horns; the
hair has the lank and matted form which characterises aquatic deities in
Greek mythography. The name of the river is often inscribed round the
head. When the whole figure occurs on the coin, it is always represented
standing, never reclining.

The type of the bull on the coins of Sybaris and Thurium, in Magna
Graecia, has been considered, with great probability, a representation of
this kind. On the coins of Sybaris, which are of a very early period,
the head of the bull is turned round; on those of Thurium, he stoops his
head, butting: the first of these actions has been thought to symbolise
the winding course of the river, the second, its headlong current. On
the coins of Thurium, the idea of water is further suggested by the
adjunct of dolphins and other fish in the exergue of the coin. The
ground on which the bull stands is indicated by herbage or pebbles. This
probably represents the river bank. Two bulls' head occur on the coins
of Sardis, and it has been ingeniously conjectured by Mr. Burgon that
the two rivers of the place are expressed under this type.

The representation of river-gods as human figures in a reclining
position, though probably not so much employed in earlier Greek art as
the Androtauric type, is very much more familiar to us, from its
subsequent adoption in Roman mythography. The earliest example we have
of a reclining river-god is in the figure in the Elgin Room commonly
called the Ilissus, but more probably the Cephissus. This occupied one
angle in the western